American Cinematographer - October 1984 - 44

you

-

slowly

the stinking, putrid skin from
bit by bit!"

tear
-

your

Meanwhile the husband has

body,

escaped,

three reels
more

erotic ideas

were conveyed with shadows, the
uninterpretable. As far as the 1934 Pro¬
was concerned, the film was flirting with

and when he thinks that Werdegast is hurting Joan, he
shoots him through the door's grille. Dying, Werdegast

shots seemed
duction Code

tells them

and pulls "the red switch" which ignites
dynamite traps. As the place explodes, the
couple escapes - a finale that James Whale would lift
one year later for The Bride of Frankenstein.
Why, then, is the best half of The
Black Cat so confusing? So many story points seem to
make little or no sense. Why does Poelzig murder Karen
if she is "the core and meaning of his life?" Why does
Werdegast's servant practically crush the husband's skull
in, an act too brutal to fit in with the charade of his
instructed allegiance to Poelzig? And why is Poelzig not
surprised in the least when this happens?
Most of this was due to the change
made in Werdegast after the fifteen-day shoot was com¬
pleted. Throughout the film, Lugosi plays an embittered
soul bent on retribution, with only a protective interest
in Joan. But, as originally conceived, Werdegast's retreat
from the basement triggers his own malignancy. Trau¬
matized by the sight of his dead wife, and contaminated
by the "intangible forces" he described earlier, he under¬
goes a transformation (an increase in libido and moral
decay), paving the way for his eventual madness.
The Black Cat's script shaped Wer¬
degast in this manner, and the film was actually shot
according to plan! In the original footage, he was no
longer the brooding altruist - his only goal was the cal¬
culated murder of Poelzig and the abduction of Joan for
himself. No longer able to repress his desires, his interest
in her becomes purely sexual. With he and Poelzig both
vying for Joan, they could care less about the husband,
for he is only in the way. Werdegast's presence at the
ceremony was not merely as a casual observer - he had
been playing host to the cultists arriving in the living

death.

room.

Werdegast instructing Thamal to obey Poelzig. In the
original scheme, Werdegast used his servant to counter
interference with his plan to possess Joan. That meant

to

go,

the fort's old

After the bus wreck

Werdegast and Peter
Alison (David
Manners) decide to
take the unconscious
Joan to

Poeizig's

mansion.

saturated with

highly-suggestive leers
ping-ponged by Karloff and Lugosi over the girl. When
were

By the time editor Ray Curtiss

as¬

sembled the rough cut, drastic changes were afoot.
Some of it was prompted by the malcontent on the part
of Bela Lugosi, who had been promised a "benign" role.
But most of the heat came from the front office. The last

Moreover,

no

mention had been

made of the still-operative dynamite charges, throwing
the finale into a quandry. Scenes of Karen raving demon¬

ically were jarring and obtrusive, and the those of the
arriving cultists were labored and unnecessary. The piv¬
otal chess game carried no apparent significance. And
with no music score, most of Karloff's entrances seemed
incoherent.
The main problem, though, was
Werdegast. Two lunatics in one film were hard to take,
and the lack of a sympathetic character alienated the
audience. The decision was made to pull all scenes de¬
picting Werdegast's lechery and shoot new ones, reshap¬
ing him as a "good guy." After Karloff and Lugosi leave
the basement together, we are really dealing with two
versions of the

film!
Another

same

$6,500 was allocated for re¬
crew gathered for two
days and two nights, starting on Sunday, March 25 and
ending March 28. Lugosi and Lund remained for 3V2
days, Wells and Cording for 2V2 days, David Manners
stayed on for two, and Egon Brecher for one. The addi¬
tional actors' fees only amounted to $1400, and Karloff
appeared gratis for the revised chess game and the prowl
in the morgue, since he had already agreed to a flat rate.
Ulmer took no extra salary. (Though it is unlikely that
the virgin footage of The Black Cat still exists, a fairly
accurate reconstruction can be made by comparing the
final script with the retake schedule, the release print,
and production stills which show the staging mentioned
in the script.)
takes and added

scenes.

Cast and

The first added

scene

was

that of

the husband. In the "new" version, he wants the

new¬

lyweds released. In order

to justify a salvaged scene in
which Thamal thwarts Peter's escape attempt by knock¬

ing him unconscious, a token scene was devised which
"absolved" Werdegast of his iniquity. "Not yet, Tha¬
mal," he says. "Put that (knife) away. We will bide our
time; other lives are at stake. And this place is so under¬
mined with dynamite, the slightest mistake would cause
the destruction of all. Until I tell you otherwise, you are
his servant, not mine."

Unfortunately the patchwork does
brutality, who (as scripted)
"very deliberately lifts one great fist and smashes it down
with pile driver force on Peter's head", throwing the
new slant on Werdegast's benevolence out of whack.
not

sit well with Thamal's

Nor does it

explain Poeizig's nonchalance to this ma¬
was in keeping with the
original
conspiracy against the Alisons!
Other sequences merely required the
neuver

-

October 1984

all of which
American Cinematographer - October 1984

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